OverlandSphere
Overland Travel, Expedition & Adventure Information for 4x4, motorcycle and truck overlanders
Nossa última noite antes de entrar na Bolívia foi em Puno, onde chegamos já no final da tarde vindo de Cusco. Como o hotel já estava reservado anteriormente pela internet, não tivemos muitos problemas para montar acampamento. O estacionamento estava incluso na diária, mas a vaga ficava a 3 quadras do hotel, em uma rua muito estreita e que exigiu…
The ride up the Baja from La Paz to Loreto was windy, quite a strong headwind in fact, so much so that we were on reserve at just over 130 miles, 50 miles earlier than usual. One other factor of course is that it’s been a while since we could sit at 70mph plus so that has a huge bearing…
Well my goodness, the last three days sure have been different. Wonderful each in their own ways. (Actually Sat, Sun & Monday. Wifi & WordPress sketchy. Today is Friday May 3rd :-) I will begin with what started great, then turned to shit, followed by great. That would be Saturday the 27th of April. We were all fired up to…
This weeks travels! We started this past week by exploring La Paz, the highest capital city in the world at 3,650m. It is a cool (literally!) city in a valley with its buildings expanding all the way up the sides of the surrounding mountains. We walked all over looking at the sights as well as for replacement items that were…
We’ve been in Oberland too long and should be leaving tomorrow. We’ve finally been caught up by Henning and we’ve had a meal and a drink. He’s been filling us in on his adventures in both Africa and South America. He’s having the time of his life same as us. He’s not met many travellers so it must be a…
Oh how I hated this series but only after it ended. I wasted so much of my life watching it….the worse ending of all time. Anyhow, our receipt number for the $160usd each isn’t being accepted by the system CSC so helpfully created. So we cannot book our appointment ! As is the way of things like this we are…
Today we went to pay for our USA B2 visa…..$160usd each. The process is long and made even worse by the “IT” systems in place. There are two systems to log on to and complete various “hoops” to apply for the visa. The fee is not refundable and you have to convince them you are not going to stay in…
There you have it. “Death Road” completed. To be honest its not scary at all. The road is wide enough and not busy. There’s worse tracks in Morocco….much worse and much more scary although not a beautiful.The start turn of the death road is just after KM54 on the main road and if you make it to the bottom you…
The other day we stayed in Cochabamba, a medium sized town spread over a large area. We stayed in a cheap hostel in the centre as they had parking. It was only 100BOL for the hostel which is about £10. The Wi-Fi didn’t work but no problem for one night. We left at around 10:30 the next day to find…
Julies recent double trouble with her cut to the hand and toothache have turned out fine. The hand in healing and the toothache is gone thanks to the Antibiotics. We are going to try missing the next pain medication dose and just take the antibiotic to make sure theres no pain left. The anti-inflamatory properties of the pain meds will…
Julie has a (mother of all) toothache and has had it for a few days. She can’t sleep due to the pain and of course its a holiday weekend. Luckily the owners of the campsite know people and got one to open so she’s been checked out and the “Dr.” says its an infection. So we have some horse tablets…
We met our first overlanders for ages in Uyuni and theres a photo of their self built truck below. Pretty amazing what you can do with an old army flat bed Iveco. We went and messed around on the salt flats. We got Matilda a bit salty so she needed a wash. The pressure washer from hell managed to soak…
There we were driving round town in Tarija and a policeman jumps out and asks for the driving licence of the “conductor” (driver in English). He’s at Julies side of the car as always. I hand my licence to Julie and she hands it to him. He then asks for Julies licence not mine and is rather insistant and looks…
So there we were…..surrounded. Six of them…..we were in trouble….They pulled up in there car and lept out…..We’d only just woken and I was still half asleep. We were sleeping in a petrol station….oh golly…..But we wern’t that worried as they are Jehovah Witnesses. I got my copy of Awake in English and turned down Watchtower. Strangely its mostly about…
Pete here. Despite slightly tainted from 6 years of absence, the memories of my first exposure to Bolivia’s carnage were still as potent as it’s locally distilled rum. I left the first time feeling like, well, like nothing really works all that well. We’d spent more time waiting for buses than actually riding them and once eventually on the move,…
Right from our very first day in Bolivia, there were many surprises. Our lack of research strikes again. We crossed the border from Puno near Copacabana on the edge of Lago Titicaca. The Bolivian side of the lake was clean, the water was clear, and people were swimming- something you would never dream of doing in the Peruvian side. Copacabana…
Bolivia was the land of mystery for me for many years. So many years that I built a great expectation, and like all great expectations the reality comes crashing down. Nous étions impatients de découvrir la Bolivie. Tellement impatients que nous avions beaucoup d’attentes et comme toutes les grandes attentes, la réalité a tout réduit en miettes. Poor Bolivia suffers…
Bolivia Campsites Copacabana Beach (S16 10.409 W69 05.651, 3819m) On Lake Titicaca Beach further along from the trout restaurants. There is a good space just before the Hostel which appears to have no name. This was very quiet overnight with no traffic. Come to an arrangement with the owner of the hostel (who sells some pretty inventive jewellery made out…
This was one of the easiest crossings we have done to date. However there are a couple of things to be aware of that can really sting you. Hito Cajon – Aduana The first thing to realise is that Bolivian Aduana is around 80km from the actual border right in the middle of the nowhere. Its actually sited at over…
Getting fuel in Bolivia is a pain in the Arse. It all stems from how Bolivia gets its fuel. Bizarrely the government buys the fuel from Chile (where it costs around USD 1.38 per litre. The Bolivian government then subsidises the pump prices to around USD 0.5 per litre. This is much cheaper than the surrounding countries so it was…
An Overlander’s Guide to Bolivia’s Southwest Circuit There are two main parts to the attractions of the Bolivian Southwest: 1) Salar de Uyuni 2) Reserva Eduardo Avaroa The base for explorations of both these areas is the only town of any size in the region, Uyuni. Uyuni is definitely not much to look at and I wouldn’t recommend spending any…
The drive from Uyuni to the Chilean border has the reputation of being one of the best off road adventures in the world. The drive takes you past beautiful high altitude lakes filled with flamingos, through upland deserts and by massive volcanoes. The altitude of the drive is between 4000m and 5000m and the nights are bitterly cold so it…
The newly paved road from Potosi to Uyuni is very good making the journey to Uyuni pretty painless. However, as is often the case, as soon as you hit the town you leave behind the smooth pavement. There isn’t much to get excited about in Uyuni. It’s has the feel of a frontier town, although its not near the border,…
The journey from Sucre to Uyuni is a long one, particularly as the drive from Sucre up into the mountains is slow. We decided to break our journey at a hot spring near Potosi. Conveniently located only a couple of Km’s off the main highway – and then 500m up a bumpy track – is the gorgeous natural hot spring…
After a few weeks at high altitude we wanted a few days lower down and a bit warmer so we drove down off the Altiplano to Sucre which is the official capital of Bolivia. It is known as the White City, along with what seems like half the other cities in South America. The traffic as we entered Sucre was…
Potosi is a high altitude (3800m) town that has grown up around the richest silver mine in town. The mine is in Cerro Rico, the mountain that towers over the town. It is said that the amount of silver taken from the mine was enough to create a bridge to Spain but that you could build two bridges of bones…
Around mid-way between La Paz and Potosi lies the town of Callapata. I’d love to give it a description but I can’t because we never made it into town. As we arrived at the toll station on the outskirts of the town we pulled up into a long line of trucks and buses. Wondering what was going on I got…
When we finally dragged ourselves away from La Paz we headed South. La Paz has to win the prize for most under-rated South American city – nothing spectacular but a damn fine place to hang out. However we had heard good things about Sajama National Park which is in the West of Bolivia and right on the Chilean border. It…
One of the most popular activities in La Paz is cycling the so called Death Road which goes down to Corioco. Over the course of the trip you descend from 4700m to 1100m, down 63km. The first 20 km or so of the road is paved, wide and allows you to absolutely fly. However the road then becomes narrow, dirt…
Every Sunday a sports hall in La Paz is taken over by the phenomenon that Is Cholita’s Wrestling. Taking the lead from American WWF wrestling Cholita’s (Bolivian women in traditional dress take on men, superheroes, each other and even zombies) in a tongue in cheek wrestling extravaganza. Most of the bouts told a similar story of good v evil. The…